Drown

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Teo is home from school, the narrator's mother tells him, but the narrator keeps on watching Spanish TV. Only when his mother goes to bed, does he reluctantly swing through the neighborhood to see Teo; he doesn't really want to see him. They used to be friends two years ago, before Teo went off to college; he remembered how excited Teo had been to go. College had never been an option for the narrator, and now he spent most of his time dealing drugs. In the summer, at night, they would head down to the community center and jump the fence into the pool. The narrator passes by Teo's house, but no one is home; he goes to the pool, but Teo isn't there either. On Saturday, he and his mother go to the mall. He remembers how he and Teo used to spend hours shoplifting in the mall stores. They were very good at it, until one day when a store clerk stopped them; Teo hit her in the face with his bag, and they were caught by a security guard in the parking lot. Now, the narrator spends nights drinking with his friends Alex and Danny and other friends who remain; in the mornings, he runs. He tries to avoid the Army recruiter on his run. When he returns home, he finds his mother talking to his no-good father on the phone; he knows that the only reason his father calls is to get money and he hangs up the phone. It only happened twice with Teo that summer before college. Teo's father had a bunch of porno tapes and one day, when he and Teo were watching them, Teo put his hand down the narrator's pants and jerked him off. The narrator was too scared to move. The next evening, when he saw Teo at the pool, the narrator acted like nothing was wrong. Teo gave him a blowjob that evening. That's the last time it happened, but the narrator is still upset by it; this is the reason the narrator is reluctant to see his boyhood friend now. When Teo went off to college, he gave the narrator a book which the narrator threw away; he didn't even bother to open it and read what he'd written. His mother always asks him why he doesn't want to see Teo and he doesn't know what to say to her. They watch a movie on Spanish TV and his mother falls asleep again. The narrator lets her sleep until the end of the movie.